Like A Day Out In Legoland...

Before creating this blog I came up with many 'Lego' related titles - 'Brickin' It', 'Riding the Emotional Rollercoaster', 'Coming Together Piece by Piece', etc.

I decided to choose a completely different title, due to the fact that all are true. Like a steady progression as the day goes on.

Starting off the day 'Brickin' It' would have been my title of choice. Arriving at college with a very uneasy feeling in my stomach. I felt like I had so much work to do today, and with so little time to do it, my nerves were at an all time high. I soon realised that I had left my sketch book at home in the nervous rush to get my work ready that morning. Could the day get much worse?

Yes would quickly declare it's self to be the answer.

Just as I had started to settle into the work, and feel like I was getting somewhere, more problems arose costing not only money to correct, but yet more time. Aiding my nerves in their goal for freedom, the fire alarm. Bring on 'Riding the Emotional Rollercoaster'. The fire alarm brought back memories of our previous pre-deadline day, once again going off to stop us working, and getting on with our assignments. Not knowing exactly how much work was left to do on my assignment, every second outside seemed to drag on and on. Eventually however, we were allowed back inside...

Slowly but surely, a pile of pages with a large X marked on them began to grow next to the computer I was using. This cheered me up slightly as I knew my work was 'Coming Together Piece by Piece'. My assignment was beginning to take shape. A few stray nerves began to appear as my stock of plastic wallets slowly dwindled, for once however, luck was on my side, as I filled my plastic wallets without even a side to spare.

All that I'm now left with is my merit/distinction criteria sheet to create. This means that I can stroll peacefully into college tomorrow morning, and hand over my assignment happily in the knowledge that it is fully completed, and that hopefully nothing is wrong with it. We shall soon see after Christmas.

Christmas will be in no way a chance to relax however, there is still much to think about. Whether our assignments will pass? Whether we will still be on the course come next semester after the exam board have had their way? Whether we will get chosen to go see Dave Pannell for Industrial Liaison groups? And what will London throw our way?

Already 2007 is looking to be a very eventful year.

"I'll have a vowel please Carol" - Not that kind of countdown!

Christmas is usually a time of joy. Sadly not this year. With deadline day looming a mere 7 days away Christmas is the last thing on every ones minds as the countdown has really begun.

This week was the week I was dreading. The last feedback meetings of the semester. An hour long special to discuss the assignments in detail. This could only mean one thing. Corrections.

Of course corrections should be a good thing. After all, I would much rather receive my feedback before handing in the assignment than afterwards and failing for it. It's just so demotivating. One day hopefully I'll get lucky, and find out that I have very little to do. Today was not one of those days.

Although the work I had to do was minor alterations here and there, the repercussions of these changes meant that I had LOTS to do. Adding a reference here and there meant altering every reference, adding an extra line meant moving all my picture content, having the wrong font size meant changing every single number on my screen designs. That's corrections for you.

But life goes on, and I suppose in a way these little corrections are no worse than the num lock key on the keyboard not automatically turning on with the computer, and as Steve said 'If that's the worst thing in life at the moment, then you've got it good'. And in a way he's right. Without getting too political, there are many people in the world worse off than me, who am I to moan about changing work? That's what life is about after all.

With this attitude in mind, my goal for the next few days is to get all my corrections out of the way, and spend the majority of the weekend typing up my evaluations for both A3 and A4 assignments. Hopefully this will then give me enough time to be able to look over my work, and get others to read it through to make sure any spelling errors or grammatical errors are removed ready for a fully finished assignment for deadline day next week.

The weeks also been a much better improvement on the last few...well months. I've managed to get a lot more work done than I usually would get done, and I'm feeling the benefits. I'm not sure if it's the deadline looming over me that's caused 'panic work' or whether Steve's 'Extreme Time Management' has just hit home or what, but I definitely plan to keep it up.

Saxamaphone!

Below are my advertising banners for two different artists for a Wakefield Jazz club. Feedback welcomed.

Extreme Time Management

The week started with a free day to simply work. A lot of work had to be done, and a lot of work did get done. Before the start of the week I still had my feedback meeting changes to complete, and my digital screen designs to design. By the end of the day it was done, and 99% of my B2B assignment is now completed. Hurrah.

Then Thursday rolled around. For some reason I always say that I like Thursdays. I'm not sure why as there always seems to be something that happens that wasn't expected. This week 'Extreme Time Management'. Steve has always said it should take no more than 2 minutes to do a thumbnail, and if it takes longer, we're taking too long. OK a given, and I'll be the first to admit that I do fall behind on thumbnails and it can take me up to 5 minutes to do 1. So when Steve said, 'right, 2 minutes to do a thumbnail' for our banners, I was slightly worried, but non the less, I got it done.

'Right, 1 and a half minutes to do your next thumbnail...go'. Oh er. The pressure was slightly on now, only 1 and a half minutes? What possible thing can you do in...'1 minute for you next thumbnail...go'.

A minute? Surely we would need more than a minute for our thumbnails? Half as much as Steve's maximum time, and 5 times shorter than my usual rate. I was worried. But somehow I managed to pull it off and get my thumbnail, though slightly scribbly, done.

'A minute is obviously too long for some of you, 30 seconds, starting now'. I began thinking to myself 'You're taking the pi...' but realised this was using up valuble seconds, and I let scribbling commence.

Once the designs were done, Steve told us that it was 'Industry Standard' how we had been working, and I knew that my working speed had to improve. I thought back to Wednesday. I thought I'd got alot of work done. But had I? To be honest, I'm still not sure.

Over the coming week my time planning will be extremely strict, no cutting corners, no leaving things to last minute, 16 set hours - no messing. I can't afford to fall behind this late in the assignments. I've got a week to get both assignments up to submission standard, and I've still got quite a bit to go, especially on A4.

If I could do the whole week over, I'm sure that my A3 assignment would be finished, because now I know Steve's idea of 'An hours work', it's hugely different to my idea of 'An hours work' before hand. I picked up the pace largely on Thursday, but Wednesday now seems such a waste, despite me thinking I had done well. I feel quite sick thinking back to the time I must of wasted in previous weeks.

Never the less, it's one week until submission standard, and a mere 2 weeks until deadline day. The 12 days of deadline will soon be upon us.

The Ol' "Before and After" Thing (Updated)

Here's my first attempt at photo restoration through Photoshop.


Before




After



Updated Version

Mind Games, Photoshop, and Spotty Old Men?

After the 'joyous' presentation of last week, I wasn't much looking forward to college this week I'm sad to say. I was exhausted from lack of sleep, and was ill which didn't really help. College was the last place I wanted to be. So as Wednesday rolled around once again, and I dragged myself out of bed and onto the train I began wondering what Steve had planned for us this week. More presentations? Work? A new task? I remembered we were getting a Photoshop assignment on Thursday and I cheered up a bit.

When I arrived at college, Steve was standing with his usual suspect grin and my mind began to wonder. When James mentioned a 'surprise presentation' my own suspicions began to rise and suddenly getting as far away from college as quickly as possible was becoming a very appealing option. I asked Steve about presentations and he gave a very cryptic response.

Damn Steve's mind games.

For about half an hour I sat, quite nervous, about the prospect of another presentation. But luckily it turned out Steve was giving us a brief lecture on 'Type Glossary' and the rest of the day was free for us to get on with work. Once again relief set in as the extra time to do some work was greatly appreciated. I got quite a lot done, until a headache set in and I was unable to do much work for a while because of the pain.

Thursday was a completely different start. Once again I dragged myself out of bed, not because I didn't want to go to college, but just because I was comfy and warm. I got on the train and once more began thinking about the day ahead, thinking what we would be doing, how long we would get to do it, and how hard it would be. I think it's the earliest I've ever arrived at college.

Steve gave us a disk to pass round with our two tasks on and I loaded them onto the computer, I looked at the first task and immediately panic set in once more. I knew the image in front of me from my interview last year. The image Steve had shown me on last year's first years portfolio websites. A timed assignment. Luckily however Steve said we had two weeks to complete both tasks.The first task we were given was to restore an old black and white photograph of 3 old men sitting on a bench holding a trophy, that was, to put it simply, wrecked. Torn, burnt, bleached, bent, scratched. You name it, it had it.

Onto Photoshop then and out with the cloning tool and spot tool, trying to remove the deformities. Then Steve came to look at my work...

Attempt two it was. And I did the same things and once again Steve came over....

Attempt three went well. Though Steve has yet to come and look at it. Next week might be a completely statement. I'm quite pleased with my photo so far however, so hopefully Steve will be too.

In just a few week both assignments are due in, so the nerves are starting to hit, so over the next week I'm going to put as much work into both assignments as possible. Even thing's I think I've finished I'm going to go over and make sure they're right. The pressure of a referal is something I could really do without.

The main thing that stands out for me this week was that perhaps I didn't put enough effort into my contents as I could have. I didn't reference any books, in fact, I didn't even look in any books if I'm being honest, and I didn't cross reference everything that I looked at. I think that this was perhaps the 'bordem' factor that I talked about in a previous blog, but in future I will definately go back and recheck or even redo work if it is time consuming/boring, instead of finishing it and taking the 'That's It' attitude.

BASIC Principles

Below are my two 'thumbnail' ideas. Because they're 'thumbnails', they're nothing special, and are by no means finished or even correctly proportioned. But they do give a rough idea of what my final designs will look like. Any feedback on which is the preferential idea, why it is, or why it isn't, or even just what you like and dislike about each idea would be greatly received.

Option 1




Option 2

Simply Red - Oh Only If It Were...

Red - In some places red symbolises love, Christmas, religion, importance, victory and good luck. So why is it to me that red symbolises anger, hate, and resent?

Well up until yesterday it didn't, I was happily swanning along in the positive side of red as I arrived at college wearing a blue t-shirt (trusting, calm, relaxed)*. I sat down red-y for a presentation from Steve, sketchbook and pen in hand.

The title of the presentation appeared on the screen, slowly fading into view. 'PRESENTATIONS'. I wrote it down. I could feel a few nervous stares in the room. The lecture began with Steve explaining about presentations, what to do in presentations, how to stand etc. This was all well and fine, I merely assumed Steve had no relevant presentation to give us, and so was giving us this one to get it out of the way. Looking back I realise that this was the biggest mistake I've made on the course yet.

Once the presentation had finished, Scott asked a simple question about when we would be having our first presentation. Steve's smile said it all and the nerves began to rise. But presentation's don't bother me. Do they?

Steve told the group that we would be pairing up to do a presentation on a colour. In mine and Gem's case, this was red. He then went on to say that we would be giving our presentations at 2pm, that very day! We immediately started work. I found myself asking questions such as, 'what do I know about red?', 'Didn't I read something about it that one time?', I made a note to myself, anything that could ever possibly be related to anything on this course, ever, to write it down for future reference. It wasn't the first time I'd worked with Gem, but it was the first time we had really worked together on a proper task (I.e. not just induction week). It was good working with her as we could both help each other out on our tasks (I felt sorry for Craig who had volunteered to do it on his own).

After dinner, we were given just a few minutes to print things off and head off to rehearse. We went to Gem's car and went through the presentation, trying to help each other out where we could. Gem seemed really nervous at the thought of the presentation, and kept getting things wrong, so I let her rehearse quite a lot, as I thought I would be fine. Another stupid mistake. After just an hours practice, we headed off to the rendezvous (A.k.a Refectory) and sat waiting.

Gem was first up so I gave her my USB and she went off, coming back down only minutes later to tell me the work wasn't on the USB. I panicked. I ran to the library and saved the PowerPoint presentation onto the USB and gave it back to her. Running caused my blood to pump faster around my body and didn't really help my nerves.

Nerves, what nerves? I'm not nervous.

We sat in the refectory for quite a while, all the time thinking about the presentation we had to give. But I'd done a few before, I'd be fine, wouldn't I? That's what I was still telling my self non the less.

After a while I realised I had no fact sheets to give to Steve and Diane (the 'Audience' for the presentation) so once again I ran to the library. I printed out the fact sheets, which didn't come out of the printer. Panic hit me once again! At this point Marc came out and said 'I got to choose who goes next, your in'. I saw red.

The librarian was ringing IT support at this point to find out where my missing fact sheet had gone. I heard the printer kick into action. It was my work. Relief.

I took a few deep breaths and walked to the room, my nerves building slightly. Steve had said this was a good thing however, so I dismissed it. I entered the room not knowing what to expect and loaded up the presentation. Already my mouth was dry. I tried to give the presentation the best I could, all the time worrying what I could be doing wrong. It turned out I did a lot wrong, as before I could even finish the presentation I heard Steve's voice. 'Stop.' My nerves soared at this point, not knowing why Steve had stopped me. In the end it turned out I had simply ran over the allotted time limit. My nerves of which I had being denying all this time were clearly obvious of which Steve pointed out, and I had done a lot of subconscious things which I had tried my hardest to resist doing.

After leaving the room I walked slowly back down to the canteen. I was happy to be back in a sort of 'comfort zone' of the day, alongside people who I knew would not be judging me on what I was about to do or say.

For one of the first times over the course I sat with Gem, Rich, Ben and Drew. I don't know why, perhaps as I'd being working with Gem a lot of the day? Perhaps I was disorientated after the presentation? I'm still not sure. I felt more relaxed at least. This was a good thing.

Once the day had ended, and I had got home, the presentation ran over and over in my mind. I thought long and hard about the next presentation. What would I do? Would I even turn up? What if Steve sprung another surprise presentation on us? I realised that the only thing I could do was to take it as it comes. If it's a surprise or not there is one major thing I would do differently.

Rehearse more.

I feel this is the one thing that me let down in the presentation, and the worst thing is knowing that it was all my own fault. No one else told me not to rehearse more. In fact Gem actually suggested I do, but I turned her offer down being my usual self. Hopefully the next presentation will be better, hopefully there won't be any more presentations. But then that wouldn't be the real world, and after all that's what Steve is getting us ready for. Yesterday was a presentation in front of 2 people. It could of been dozens, or thousands. The more I think about it, I thank god for Steve's surprise presentation.


*Dyer, (2006), Blue - Psychological and Cultural Significance

Dictionary Week

Blog
N: an online diary; a personal chronological log of thoughts published on a Web page; also called Weblog, Web log

This pretty much sums up most of my week. Researching the Internet for different terms and writing them out in my own words. I can't say it was hard, research is quite an easy task, but time consuming and frustrating are two words that I would definitely 'look up'. This was in aid of the Back to BASIC assignment that we are doing (where we have to create a website about computer terms and definitions). I've still not finished the task, but I still think that I'm on target with the assignment, which is a big weight off my mind.

The second lot of dictionary related lectures came on Thursday morning. Where we were given a lecture on different industry standard image compression formats. One of which was 'Dictionary Encoding'. At this point I'd just about had enough of dictionaries (no matter in what context they were) and could just tell it was to be a bad day.

Whilst the days are getting shorter, the days of college are getting longer, as on Wednesday we stayed right up until 6 o'clock. Although we were warned about this, I didn't realise just how much an extra hour of work could take out of you. I was exhausted. So much in fact that on Wednesday night I couldn't even face reading through my lecture notes for the day, and instead decided to leave them until the weekend where I could look at the weeks notes as a whole.

Wednesday also brought with it, talk about my blog from Dean. Who said that my blog does not contain enough pictures. This is something I will bear in mind for future blogs, and will not only try and spend the week finding images for my sketch book, but also perhaps for images to be placed on my blog as well.

Thursday brought yet more fun and excitement with it. Using Photoshop in college for the first time. I finally got my serial numbers through for my version of CS2 and Studio 8 but as of yet, have had no chance to install them. So using CS2 for the first time was to be the highlight of my week. Or so I thought. The task in the assignment was much like the computing terms task, in the way that it was time consuming and frustrating. I could even go as far as saying it was boring (although this is an opinion that will probably change after looking back on the assignment). Hopefully the assignment will improve once I start writing about the images, and getting back into the reason I joined the course, and not spending my time creating graphs and charts in Microsoft Excel.

Next week ought to be a good week, as I may get chance to start designing my screens for the Back to BASIC assignment, something of which I really enjoyed in the last assignment. Also next week, I will hopefully complete the image compression task, which means that we can then use Photoshop to complete the restoration task of the assignment - something that I have been looking forward to since before the start of the course.

I've still to get around to creating my own version of an inspirational art piece, although I have had some idea's of how to do them, and how to make it my own. Hopefully I'll get chance to do it sooner rather than later.

"No Questions....apart from one...Deal, Or No Deal"

Sadly I'm not Noel Edmonds, and I don't have £250k to give away for opening a box, but I have been posed by another question. The 'Art VS Design' question once more. And as usual once more when I start trying to do an assignment I get sidetracked easily by MSN, music and random links I've been sent in e-mails. This was also a problem I had in the first assignment.

So I decided to do something about it.

I turned off the TV, the music, MSN, and closed my e-mail inbox. I was ready to work. Or was I? I began trying to start the assignment once more but my head just wasn't in the right place. So I decided that scouring the internetfor inspirational art might help me get started. It is then I found ISketch.

I've been on it for about half an hour now and it's really good. Basically it's like an online version of Pictionary. Although it may seem like a time waster at first, it really opens up your mind to be a bit more creative (and using what is basically an online version of paint with even less tools takes alot of creativity) and has really helped me get started on my assignment. I'm not sure if Steve will agree with me on this, but I'd definately check it out if your stuck getting started and don't want to get too sidetracked.

And in the end, I guess we're possed with another question. 'Time Waster or Creative Process?'

Lessons Learnt

This week has been a bit of a disaster week for me. To start the week off, my USB we were given at the start of the year malfunctioned, and therefore I lost all my work, and then on Thursday, after re-doing some of the work, I manged to leave my USB at home. Typical. Despite all this however, I have quite enjoyed myself this week.

As I said in my last blog, I ordered a new book called 'Adobe Photoshop CS2 for Photographers'. I avoided linking to the book at first as I didn't want to advertise a book for people to buy and it turn out to be completely rubbish. However, since receiving the book I have discovered that it is in fact a really good book to use. It is not a tutorial book as such, but more of a reference book that explains how you can do certain tasks within Photoshop if and when you come across them. The book may not be for everyone, as some things in the book may be too simple for the more advanced users of the software, but for anyone who has never used Photoshop, or would like a book to keep at hand in case they get stuck on the assignments then I would definitely recommend it.

Also this week I received my copies of Macromedia (Now Adobe) Studio 8, and Photoshop CS2. These are two software packages that we will be using over the course and thought that having the most up to date applications was probably for the best. I filled in my serial number applications and sent them off so I will hopefully get chance to get used to the new software before we have to use it for assignments.

A large proportion of this week has been spent finding inspirational artwork. All of the artwork that I have found so far is taken from CD covers from my favourite band - Muse. Because the A4 assignment involves discussing vector and bitmap graphics, I decided that it would be best to look into vector and bitmap graphics for my artwork this week. Funnily enough, I found a really good piece of vector art and once again, from Muse.

The image on the right shows the image that I found. It is the DVD cover of one of the bands latest singles called 'Supermassive Black Hole'. As part of my self study for the following week, I am going to try and find out what companies (or company) designs Muse's CD artwork as I would be interested in seeing other pieces of their design work, as apposed to Muse, as it may be a different style but still could be quite interesting and inspirational to me.

If I get time, I may also try and recreate a piece of my inspirational artwork to get me used to the new version of Photoshop and also as a way of getting used to bitmap and vector graphics (whichever piece I choose to recreate).

All in all it has been quite a busy week, we've learnt alot of new things of which I will need to go back over and read my notes again (although for some I have already done this) and just make sure that the information has stuck as it is all things that I am sure we will need for a very long time.

Hopefully by next week I will have my goals, target audience, delivery requirements, and competitive analysis done for the A3 assignemnent, and willl have started (or at least done research into) the compression report for the A4 assignment. I think if I can those things done then I will be on schedule for completing the assignment on time, and will probably start to enjoy the A3 assignment more too, as I can begin to start designing my pages once again. Also hopefully next week will bring better luck with USB's, although I have definately learnt my lesson now about backing up my work.

Pass go collect £200 2 more assignments

The first week back after half term, and straight back into assignments. We were given yet another TWO assignments this week. One similar to our previous assignment of which we have to create a web plan (although this time the website will be created) and one that is very Photoshop based. This it's self has already cost me £17 of my student loan as I have purchased an up to date book about Photoshop.

In general at the beginning of the week I was quite worried that having a further 2 assignments given to us (making it 3 in total) would cause me great stress and cause me to possibly panic with the amount of work load that we were given. These fears were also exaggerated by the revealing of our grades. Luckily however I passed both unit's of our assignments which has given me a new sense of motivation, not only to keep trying hard on the course, but to try even harder and hopefully get even higher grades on the next 2 assignments. Although I have yet to gain any feedback from my assignment I am looking forward to gaining criticism about my assignment so that I know what to change, and also to hear the positive things about the assignment so that I know what I did well in my previous assignment.

As well as this good news about my grades, I was also happy to find out that the amount of work we have to do for 2 assignments isn't as big as I thought it would be, although a lot of work will still obviously have to be done, it has again given me more confidence for the course, something which can only be a good thing I'm sure.

Next week is bound to be a hard slog of the assignment, as I'm sure it will start to sink in on me over the weekend just exactly what we have to do, although hopefully I shall give me time to get my head around any problems at the same time.

I also hope to get my feedback on my first assignment from Steve next week, which as I said, will hopefully give me further idea of what needs to be done for the A3 (Back to BASIC) assignment, and the book that I ordered will give me further insight into Photoshop (of which I can't gain on my own just by 'trial and error' methods of learning software) to help me not only for the A4 (Picture Perfect) assignment, but also over the next couple of years on the course.

Assignments Passed:
A2 - That's The Plan

Assignments Working On:
A1 - SketchBlog,
A3 - Back To BASIC,
A4 - Picture Perfect

Holidays are a time for reflection

Well the assignments in and the holidays have begun. Assignment day was just as I expected really. I got into college early and handed my work straight in at reception and went up to the room feeling both extremely calm, and happy that I had handed it in and I didn't have to worry about it anymore. There were a few people in the room, some panicking slightly, some not. I decided that seen as I had all my work done and in that I would give some people a hand sorting out their assignments by reading through them or explaining solutions to their problems (mostly printer related). After a while a few of us headed down to the canteen for about an hour before heading to the pub.

At first when the idea of the pub was suggested I was slightly wary. I didn't know if it was a joke or not as Steve has always been about maintaining a proffesional approach to the course. But when we got there I realised the reason. We had no work we could be doing so most people would just of headed home anyway had we not have gone, but by going to the pub it helped us relax and gave us our first chance to discuss the assignment as a group and our views.

I found going to the pub somewhat helpful (for want of a better word) as I think that I got talking to alot of the members of the group more than I normally would and I think that everyone bonded alot more on a whole in a social situation rather than little groups in class.

But that's just one day. The first half of the term so far has been alot different.

In general it's been quite a hectic few weeks. What with starting the course, getting to know everyone, learning new software, and learning what is expected off us. I think that everyone has done well to cope with the amount of work we have received.

My favourite part of the course so far has been learning the new software. Although it hasn't been easy at times I think that in the long run been able to say that I know how to use different pieces of software will really help. Especially when we get onto software such as Photshop, Flash and Dreamweaver.

The worst part of the course however is probably having to readjust how I do things, as I've gotten used to what tutors expect from the AVCE course and what Steve expects on the HND is completely different. I suppose that this is just something of which I shall get used to as the course progresses however.

Next week when we are back at college I am going to really buckle down and get on with the work as I did this first half term. However I think that I may need to put alot more effort into self study periods, as I did have the occasional tendancy to let my work slide a little bit whilst I was at home. Some would call this confidence, some would call this stupidity, but when we go back to college there will be twice as much work to do so no matter what it gets called, it won't be happening again.

I'm quite looking forward to college again next week as we get two new assignments, one of which is a photoshop assignment which I think will be quite interesting, and the other is more of the same as we have done the past few weeks. It also means that we will be shortly getting our grades back from the first assignment and I find out if I passed the assignment.

Pre-Deadline Nerves? Not for me thanks.

It is a day before the deadline. I feel I should be worried, yet surprisingly I'm not. No nerves. No mad state of panic. Nothing. This is why I am writing my blog entry for the week less than 24 hours before the deadline.

Saying this however, the weeks not been all calm. Tuesday was quite a hectic day, making sure that all my work was printed, putting everything into plastic wallets, making sure that everything was filled in etc. This was probably the worst day in the whole of the assignment, which is why I chose to do it at home, where I may not get distracted as easily, and might find it calmer than panicking at college. I've also began to design and create my own portfolio website which gave me a welcome break from worrying about the assignment.

The best thing about the week so far has been the satisfaction of knowing that my assignment is pretty much done and knowing that Thursday will not be a blind panic for me, arriving at college at around 8am. I have based my thoughts around a quote that Steve gave to us a few weeks ago in a lecture. This being:

"Time only seems to matter when it's running out" - Peter Strup

Which is why I have tried to get my work finished slightly early, so that instead I feel confident enough that I can arrive at college at around 10.30am and spend half an hour just double checking over my work before dropping it in at around 11am.

The worst thing about the week so far has had to be the amount of tedious checking over of work that I've had to do as well though. However, saying this, I realise that this is a necessary part of the course and that without checking over my work many times I would never pass the course. I'm also quite glad that I did check my work over a few times as every time I found something that was wrong, even tiny things such as a double space or a missing capital letter.

All in all, I've had a very positive week. Probably my most positive yet. I don't feel like anything extremely negative has happened this week for me to worry about, and I am looking forward to the weeks break of half term where I can continue to develop and create my portfolio website and not have to worry about an imminent deadline looming.

For once I do not think that there is much I could have done differently this week. Perhaps if I had taken a little more time and care over some parts of my assignment then I would not be sat here typing up a blog, but it all comes down to my results of the assignment. If when I get my results back from Steve, and I have failed my course then I will wish that I had spent today adapting my assignment further, however, if I get my assignment results back and I have passed (or even received a merit or distinction) then I will be happy knowing that I have put extra hours in throughout the week into my self study time so that my final week before the deadline was not spent rushing the assignment to get it finished on time in a flurry of nerves.

Hours until deadline: 23

"And Our Time Is Running Out"

Life seems to be imitating art this week as Matt Bellamy (Lead vocalist of Muse) can be heard echoing in my ears with 'Time Is Running Out'. After all, time really is running out for us at this moment in time in the course. It's now less than a week before our first deadline which means I'm thinking more in terms of days rather than weeks. Luckily however, I've managed to get the majority of my work done which has now given me the week to spend time checking over every word, nay letter, of my assignment.

It has definitely been one of the most stressful weeks of the course so far. The sheer mountain of work that has had to be done, on top of the knowledge that we had until Thursday to have our work to 'Submission Standard' has meant that it's been pretty much non-stop working since last Thursday. Over the course of the week I've redrawn my screen designs in my sketch book, which now look a lot neater and more accurate, as well as then re-creating them digitally in PageMaker. I've also written my evaluation, corrected most of the mistakes in my assignment work, and put it all into the correct format.

All this work did firstly mean that starting the week I was quite nervous. Scared even. But from the word go on Wednesday I immediately began to feel slightly more relaxed. We had a lecture from John about our blog’s which was quite useful as well as interesting as it gave us the chance to see other peoples blog’s and see what other people where doing wrong, which coincidentally also happened to be what we were doing wrong. In the afternoon Diane came round to speak to a few of us again which gave me an opportunity to finish off my screen designs and once again create them digitally which was one of my major worries as I thought it would take a lot longer than it did.

Thursday contained another lecture, this time from Steve, who went through the PageMaker template with us, which I was very pleased about. Even though my assignment was already in PageMaker, some of the thing's I had not done, such as using the style formats. Instead I had simply manually altered the fonts of the text which I found out was incorrect. The rest of the morning was spent changing my assignment to make it to, what I thought was, submission standard. This took a lot of the pressure from me, because I knew that we were the first group into our feedback meetings. This meant that anything that required changing I had most of the afternoon to continue changing things.

As I said before now all I have left to do is check through my work and make sure that no corrections are needed. All my work is hopefully correct so it is just a case of me looking for spelling and grammar mistakes, double spaces, double line breaks, etc.

Next week should be a relatively easy week for me. Just again checking through my work and printing off what needs to be printed off. On Thursday I'm hoping to get into college quite early and hand my work in early enough before the deadline to avoid anything going wrong (such as today's fire alarm).

Days Until First Deadline: 7

Time Fly's When Your Having Fun

Well, another week over already. Time seems to be flying at the moment. Once more I’m unsure if that’s a good thing. Half term is only 2 weeks away, but so is our first deadline, looming over us growing closer every day. No, time flying is definitely not a good thing.

With just one week until our assignments have to be up to submission standard, it’s been yet another manic week, importing all the work into PageMaker, beginning putting in our references, and getting vast amounts of feedback about our designs.

A week without any lectures was relief due to the amount of work we have to do. It was good to have Wednesday and Thursday morning’s free to simply work on our assignment’s and actually feel like I was getting somewhere. The scariest thing at the moment funnily enough isn’t our ‘Great Briton’ assignment. It’s actually thinking about our next two assignments. It will take serious time management to concentrate on two assignments at once, which is something I’ll really have to work on. But that’s a few weeks away yet.

As I already said, a lot of work has been done this week. It’s probably my most productive week yet. In fact I seem to be capable of doing more and more week each week. I don’t think it’s down to me trying any harder, though I’m sure if I get asked I won’t deny it, but I actually think it’s down to the fact that I’m getting into my stride a lot more and I’m now able to cope with the work better and not sit pondering over a question for 15 minutes. The only problem with the week really is, like I said before, time seems to be passing by so quickly that I fear the assignment won’t be ready in time. I can see serious self study at home this week.

Next week the assignment has to be up to submission standard, so next week I think will be spent changing things pointed out to me in our feedback groups, and tidying up loose ends. I will then no doubt have another feedback group where further things are found wrong with my assignment and I will then spend the majority of Thursday afternoon altering my assignment further ready for submission date.

Week until first deadline: 2 (Submission standard in 1)

"This week, I have mostly been learning..."

This week, most of Wednesday was spent learning PageMaker. Now, PageMaker may not be the most technological of tools – in fact in the industry it's laughable - but apparently it's a 'good learning tool'. So learn we did. For a change I found PageMaker extremely easy to use, and got a good grasp of it straight away. If that keeps up then I’ll have no problems learning all the other pieces of software we have to use over the next two years, although something tells me that’s not going to happen. The good thing to come out of finding PageMaker rather easy to use is the fact we have less than 2 weeks to get our assignments to submission standard. Every second seems to count at the moment, so I'm finding it quite difficult at times thinking I may fall behind due to college lectures both Wednesday and Thursday mornings.

It’s been a very productive week this week, despite having very little time on Wednesday to do any assignment work or on Thursday morning. I’ve somehow managed to get both my ‘neat’ screen designs done and drawn up in my sketch book (soon to be uploaded to my blog) and have even started work on my digital screen designs in page maker (again soon to be uploaded). My site map is finished, so I’m well on my way to achieving the target date for the assignment.

Next week I think will be rush, rush, and yet more rushing however. Luckily we don’t have Helen again until after half term, which gives us an extra couple of hours a week now to work further on our assignments, draw everything together, and get it up to submission standard. It’s scary to think we’re over half way through the assignment already.

Keep an eye out for my screen designs hopefully up on my blog sometime this week.

First Deadline: 3 Weeks (To be ready in 2)

Wanted

SCREEN designs. Five. Grainy, sketched, and annotated. Seek honest feedback from all readers. See below. Comments or E-Mail.


One:

Two:

Three:

Four:

Five:

Easy! Easy! Easy! .... I wish

Three weeks into the course and already the tone is set. We’ve already got two assignments, one of which we’re already a third of the way through. Yet despite all this it’s been a relatively easy week. After all, all we’ve had to really do is continuous work on the ‘That’s The Plan’ assignment throwing up question after question, problem after problem, and lecture after lecture. Ok, so maybe it’s not been an ‘easy’ week. But it’s the easiest we’ll get. Next week we’re half way through our first assignment. After only 3 weeks.

I must say though, I’m glad the weeks over. Not because it’s getting to the weekend, after all the work doesn’t stop when we leave on a Thursday afternoon, but because the worries that I had when I started the week have now gone. Starting the week I wasn’t too sure where I was meant to be in relation to the course. Was I meant to be up to my screen designs? Or was I meant to be simply still comparing similar sites? With this been the first assignment I just wasn’t sure what to expect. If anything though I think I’m now ahead in my work. Which again, I'm not sure if is a good thing or not. Hopefully if I am ahead, I’ll find out sooner rather than later and be able to go over things I may have ‘rushed’ or ‘skipped’.

In general though it’s been a very productive week after the initial stage of having enough questions to create my own game show that is. But since then it’s all gone quite well. Though most of the assignment so far has been ICT research, now I'm finally getting onto the art and design part of the assignment, again, a very good thing. Though it’s not all been fun and games this week. It’s been extremely difficult to break old habits. Habits such as not writing down sites visited and times of visit, writing notes from all lectures - though after 3 weeks this is beginning to get slightly easier. Though I think that’s the key, just to keep doing it, and in a few weeks, hopefully, it will be instinct for me to do it.

In general through the week it’s been very straight forward. I don’t think there’s much I could have done that I haven’t done. Which I suppose is good. But in a way it’s also bad. After all if I'm going to mess something up I think I’d rather mess up at the beginning of the course than half way through. Saying that, I think I’d rather not mess up at all.

Next week I’ve got loads to do. I'm hoping to get quite a lot of research done, on various things, like my costs of building the site, and my costs of maintaining the site, etc. though that’s not all. Hopefully I’ll have all my thumbnail sketches done too and scanned in so I can get feedback on them from all the avid readers of my blog. Currently standing at 1 as far as I'm aware.

Weeks until first deadline: 4

Week 2 - Assignments 1 and 2

We’re only the second week into the course and already 2 assignments. I'm starting to realise just what the definition of hard work is. The scary thing is it's probably going to get even harder.

The ‘Great Briton’ assignment is actually quite fun, in the fact it’s giving us a chance to research and plan a website based around our ‘Great Briton’. I was a bit sceptical about the idea at first, thinking ‘How am I supposed to design a website, with no images or text, about a ‘Great Briton’?’, but now it’s quite clear.

It’s quite an arty assignment, as apposed to an ICT assignment, which isn’t a bad thing. It’s going to be a good start to get our creative juices flowing before we have to combine them with the ICT part of the course as well.

Photoshop is the only software that we’ll really have to use for the assignment, which is a plus, as I've got quite a lot of experience using it so I'm hoping I can use that to my advantage with the assignment.

The worst thing about the assignment will be learning the new ‘Harvard reference’ system. Gone are the days where a bibliography at the back of the assignment will suffice. Saying that, gone are the days where assignments were spoon fed to you with a ‘check list’ of thing’s you had to do. Yes, there may be ‘check lists’ in the new assignments, but to get them we’ve got to make them ourselves.

The ‘Sketchblog’ assignment sounds relatively easy. Keep a weekly blog, and do work in our sketch book. Right, now if it were only that simple. The blog part of the assignment seems relatively easy, as long as I remember to update this weekly. I'm sure eventually I’ll get into the habit soon enough though. It’s the sketch book part that’s troubling me the most. For a whole year, every thing that goes into my sketch book will be marked. Notes, pictures, sketches, designs, even things I just liked the look of and decided to stick in. I guess again it’s all down to habit, getting into the routine of taking notes, and making my sketch book my first point of call for anything we do. That way I guess I can’t really go wrong.

Only time will tell.

First Deadline: 5 weeks.

Where Am I, and How Did I Get Here?

I’ve come from a life that has always been very computer orientated. From a very young age I was always into gadgets, new toys I could play with. The computer was always my favourite however, and for that reason I began to explore it for more than just playing games. I began experimenting. Now, experimenting is not always a good thing. Many a time a new, ‘experimental’ recipe someone thought would be good has resulted in take away food from the local Chinese. But with the PC it worked. I found numerous ways to have fun on the computer, one of the first was using MS paint, a very basic design package, but over the years I began using more and more advanced packages. I moved onto Photoshop and FrontPage, and within no time at all had soon created my first website using my own ideas and designs.

I was hooked.

For this reason, I took up an ICT course at Wakefield College after leaving compulsory education. The course gave me an insight into various ICT units, but it was the second year I was really looking forward to. The web design units. Finally, a chance to get my passion recognised for something, instead of it floundering around, unnoticed on the internet, or sitting hidden deep on my hard drive for no one to see. At this stage I was having doubts about web designing for a living, and instead was thinking about taking up Journalism (another of my passions). For this reason I decided it was best to apply for both on my UCAS application. After doing website design at college, and having an interview for web design at Wakefield, I had made my choice - Web Design.

This now brings me to my reason for writing this. It is not so that in 50 years, when I’m old and grey, I can see what I was like as a child, but hopefully, so that in 2 years, I can look back at the end of my course at Wakefield and see what I gained from the course, and if it is what I expected.

My main reason for joining the course is to have fun and enjoy it, but I am also hoping to use it as a stepping stone, either to a job, or a full degree at university. Presently, all the skills I have learnt about web design, graphic design, etc. have been self taught skills. Something of which I am sure a lot of employers could do without. For this reason, I hope that from the course, I will gain the necessary experience and qualifications to further my career and advance to the next step.

Now, I’m no stranger to hard work, but I know that to get to where I want to be in 2 years will take a lot of hard work, probably a lot more than I’ve experienced before. But at the end of it, when I’ve gotten the right qualifications to get the job I want, I’ll be able to look back, and know it was all worth it.